Chris Wood

Chris Wood, a skillful left-arm seamer, remains one of the most talented young bowlers in Hampshire’s books, but his progress has been slowed down twice due to knee surgery which has wrecked a couple of summers for him. Hailing from Basingstoke, Wood came up through the Hampshire age groups and was selected for England U-19s to tour South Africa.

Wood got his breakthrough in 2010 County cricket and struck 20 wickets as Hampshire lifted their first T20 title. At the age of 20, he became the key part of the attack in the shortest format leading Hampshire into five finals in as many seasons. 

Wood became a genuine all-rounder in 2012 when he scored his maiden first-class hundred against Leicestershire in the Friends Life T20 Final to hand a Hampshire victory. After a couple of injury-ridden seasons, Wood returned to his best at the end of the 2014 summer, picking up 15 wickets in just four County Championship, whilst the seamer demonstrated his limited-overs skills once again the following season, topping the club's T20 bowling averages on the way to a Finals Day appearance. Again the knee injury hit back and he opted to go for surgery thus missing a couple of seasons.

The Basingtonstoke-born made an amazing comeback with both bat and bowl playing an important role in helping Hampshire reach a record seventh Finals Day. In 2020, the pacer was suspended for two months in the charge of placing bets in cricket matches between 2011 to 2016. A few months later he announced retirement from red-ball cricket to focus on limited-overs cricket for Southampton based county. The 29-year-old who has not played a first-class match since May 2018, has indeed become a key cog in Hampshire's white-ball team.

(As of April 2021)